"I don’t necessarily disagree that young students should be writing by hand first. While I can’t find the link at the moment, I do recall some research connecting the physical movement of writing with helping students learn their letters and then to read and write. And I do think that around third or fourth grade is probably not a bad time to wait to start keyboarding in earnest based on developmental factors (although I know there are folks that start it earlier and it seems to work out fine). So the line that states, “We need to help children become bilingual writers so they can write by both the pen and the computer. So don’t throw away your pen or your keyboard. We need them both” is not bad advice, at least at the elementary level when students are learning to write."
Karl Fisch A teacher for twenty-one years who has taught middle and high school math and is currently Director of Technology at Arapahoe High School in Centennial, Colorado, USA. Author of the famous “Did you know?” video and winner of the EduBlog Lifetime Achievement Award of 2009.
1. Read your quote and determine what question about the great keyboarding debate it addresses
2. Restate the quote in your own words. Students need to be bilingual writers in that they can keyboard and hand write independently and interdependently.
3. Determine its implications for your students, you, your colleagues, and your district. By the middle school level, students do need to know how to keyboard their papers and projects; however, note-taking still needs to be done by hand because not all schools have one computer per student. Schools are still a paper generated society.
4. What questions and/or concerns does this raise for you? What support and/or resources to you need to further your understanding or learnings about this topic? We agree with the quote that both keyboarding and handwriting need to be taught from the elementary stage. We feel that handwriting should start first, then have keyboarding follow by 3rd or 4th grade.
Fisch, Karl, 2009, ‘Is the Pen Mightier than the Keyboard’, The Fischbowl weblog post, 9 November, <http://thefischbowl.blogspot.com/2009/10/is-pen-mightier-than-keyboard.html>.
"I don’t necessarily disagree that young students should be writing by hand first. While I can’t find the link at the moment, I do recall some research connecting the physical movement of writing with helping students learn their letters and then to read and write. And I do think that around third or fourth grade is probably not a bad time to wait to start keyboarding in earnest based on developmental factors (although I know there are folks that start it earlier and it seems to work out fine). So the line that states, “We need to help children become bilingual writers so they can write by both the pen and the computer. So don’t throw away your pen or your keyboard. We need them both” is not bad advice, at least at the elementary level when students are learning to write."
Karl Fisch A teacher for twenty-one years who has taught middle and high school math and is currently Director of Technology at Arapahoe High School in Centennial, Colorado, USA. Author of the famous “Did you know?” video and winner of the EduBlog Lifetime Achievement Award of 2009.
1. Read your quote and determine what question about the great keyboarding debate it addresses
2. Restate the quote in your own words. Students need to be bilingual writers in that they can keyboard and hand write independently and interdependently.
3. Determine its implications for your students, you, your colleagues, and your district. By the middle school level, students do need to know how to keyboard their papers and projects; however, note-taking still needs to be done by hand because not all schools have one computer per student. Schools are still a paper generated society.
4. What questions and/or concerns does this raise for you? What support and/or resources to you need to further your understanding or learnings about this topic? We agree with the quote that both keyboarding and handwriting need to be taught from the elementary stage. We feel that handwriting should start first, then have keyboarding follow by 3rd or 4th grade.